Defendant denies using Montreal as terrorism base

PARIS - The accused ringleader of a network that allegedly provided false documents to Islamic militants denied Friday that he used a Montreal apartment as a base of operations.

Ending a second week of trial, a magistrate judge - who can question defendants - charged that some two dozen people used the apartment in Canada as an active base for providing funds, documents and men to support terrorist acts.

"This apartment was a meeting place," Michele Bernard-Requin said. "A place where a good number of telephone calls were made or received."

Fateh Kamel, 40, portrayed by prosecutors as the organizer of the network, said he had gone to the apartment but called it nothing out of the ordinary.

"If there is a class, you have a meeting," said Kamel. "If there is a baptism, you have a meeting. It was an apartment, and people lived there."

On the opening day of the trial Feb. 7, prosecutors portrayed a vast support network of Islamic militants at the disposal of "brothers" in Europe and elsewhere.

One defendant being tried in absentia, Ahmed Ressam, is under arrest in the United States. French prosecutors accuse him of giving lodging to several members of the network in Canada.